"Whoever wants to honor either man will have their own day," she said. Vivian Davis Figures said.įigures' bill would have kept Lee's holiday but moved it to Columbus Day in October. One believed in justice and fairness for all, and another believed in slavery," state Sen.
"We're trying to separate the holidays of two men whose ideologies were totally separate, from one end of the totem pole to the other. Lee and slain civil rights leader the Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior on the same day. It's really hypocritical, quite tone deaf," Bennett said.Īn Alabama Senate committee last week rejected a proposal to separate the joint state holiday celebrating Confederate General Robert E. At the same time, you are honoring the Confederacy, which in itself is a divisive concept. "On one side, you have white conservative men defining what divisive is and what it means. on the same day.Ĭamille Bennett, the founder of Project Say Something, an organization that has worked for the removal of Confederate monuments in Alabama, said the determination to keep Confederate holidays comes at the same time Alabama lawmakers push legislation banning so called " divisive concepts" from being taught in state classrooms and diversity training for state workers. Georgia in 2015 renamed Confederate Memorial Day to "State Holiday." Arkansas in 2017 ended the practice of commemorating Lee and the Rev. Lee Day and Confederate Memorial Day from the list of state holidays. Several Southern states have ended or renamed Confederate holidays. Legislation has been introduced in the ongoing Alabama legislative session to remove, alter or rename Confederate-related holidays, but this effort has so far gained little traction. In 1891, 11 Italians were lynched in New Orleans by a mob that held them responsible for the death of a police official.Alabama and Mississippi closed government offices on Monday for Confederate Memorial Day as efforts have stalled to abolish or rename Confederate holidays. Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, appointed a committee to evaluate whether monuments to certain historical figures should be removed, prompting a backlash from fellow Italian-Americans who vowed to defend the Columbus statue, which has stood over Columbus Circle for more than a century. The protesters, two dressed in fake chains and one wearing a hooded white sheet, spoke out before being escorted away. On Sunday, three demonstrators briefly interrupted a wreath-laying ceremony at the Columbus statue in Columbus Circle. In New York, where 35,000 people are expected to march in Monday’s Columbus Day parade, vandals last month doused the hands of a Christopher Columbus statue in blood-red paint and scrawled the words “hate will not be tolerated.” Activists calling for the city to change the parade’s name also are expected to hold a demonstration. And we’re entitled to do that just as they are entitled to celebrate who they are.” “Columbus Day is a day that we’ve chosen to celebrate who we are. “We had a very difficult time in this country for well over a hundred years,” said Basil Russo, president of the Order Italian Sons and Daughters of America. It joined cities including San Francisco, Seattle and Denver, which had previously booted Columbus in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day.īut the gesture to recognize indigenous people rather than the man who opened the Americas to European domination also has prompted howls of outrage from some Italian-Americans, who say eliminating their festival of ethnic pride is culturally insensitive, too. A movement to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day has gained momentum in some parts of the U.S., with Los Angeles in August becoming the biggest city yet to decide to stop honoring the Italian explorer and instead recognize victims of colonialism.Īustin, Texas, followed suit Thursday.
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